EP# 138 - Mastering the Entrepreneur's Journey from Inception to Exit with Sergio DeCesare

Embark on an entrepreneurial odyssey with Sergio DeCesare, the wizard behind Max Business Profits, and discover how to navigate the tumultuous seas of business from launch to lucrative exit. As we converse with Sergio, he draws from his own transformation—a tale of an IT business owner turned triumphant seller—to illuminate the oft-overlooked necessity for a strategic exit plan from day one. With each anecdote and piece of advice, Sergio unmasks the typical pitfalls that ensnare many ambitious business owners, such as fixating on immediate sales at the expense of long-term growth and the peril of stagnation in a world where continuous learning is the only currency.

Feel the pulse of our local economy as we underscore the significance of supporting the small businesses that form the very fabric of our community. In these times of economic flux, I offer you a beacon of hope and a call to action: to prepare, adapt, and unite. By nominating exemplary local businesses for a spotlight on our show, you contribute to the collective strength that will see us through whatever changes may come. Tune in to this episode not just for insights that could reshape your business acumen, but to be part of the fellowship that champions our neighborhood's vibrancy and resilience.

Max Business Profits
Sergio DeCesare
 888-504-1105
 239-580-7408
 sergio@maxbusinessprofits.com
 WEBSITE

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, cabo, jim Schaller.

Speaker 2: 0:11

Welcome Good Neighbors to episode number 138 of the Good Neighbor Podcast Estero. Today we have Good Neighbor Sergio De Cesare from Max Business Profits. Sergio, welcome, good morning.

Speaker 3: 0:22

Jim.

Speaker 2: 0:23

Yeah, pleasure to have you on. I know you work with a lot of businesses here in Southwest Florida, so I'd love to understand a little bit more about what you do with them. So why don't we start off by sharing that, yeah?

Speaker 3: 0:36

well, I want to thank you first for having me on and giving me a platform to do that, so thank you very much for that, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 0:44

Where would you like to begin? You know well, I guess, share a little bit of what you do over at Max Business Profits.

Speaker 3: 0:51

So I am, yeah, I am a certified business coach, a certified profit and growth expert, which is more of an accounting designation. I am a certified exit strategist. I'm a certified value builder with John. Warlow if you ever heard of his books and his programs, and I'm also a business broker, so I work with businesses from almost just past the startup phase to the point where, okay, now we want to cash out. What do we need to do in the next timeframe to do that?

Speaker 2: 1:28

Absolutely, and that's why you get in the business to get out and make your money.

Speaker 3: 1:31

Well, you know, that's an interesting thing because most business owners don't think about that when they start their businesses, right, they think about okay, where's the next sale coming from?

Speaker 3: 1:41

Yep, yep, and then, before you know it, it's 20, 30 years and they've got no plan to retire, correct. So how did you get involved in this industry? Well, funny story is I actually had an IT company back in 05. I'd actually been in IT for a long time, since 1995. I had a brick and mortar location in Bonita Springs and you know, I was getting burned out. I mean, the quickest way to burn yourself out is to do something you love for money. Okay.

Speaker 1: 2:12

So I was at this point.

Speaker 3: 2:13

Yes, I was at this point. I had people working for me, I had showroom, I had all kinds of inventory and stuff and I called a broker and I said, hey, listen, I'm thinking about selling. What do you think I can get for this? So he takes a look at everything. He takes a look at the books, takes a look at inventory, employees, everything else, writes his number down and slides it across the desk to me. So I open up this piece of paper and I take a look at the number and the only thing that came to mind at that point was I think I'm going to stab this guy in the eye. But I didn't stab him in the eye. I graciously thanked him for his input and asked him to leave.

Speaker 3: 2:47

I spent the next year, 14 months, changing my business model, talking to everybody who's ever sold an IT company, anybody who's actually sold a company, and decided what was valuable in selling a business, and I changed my model. I actually sold my business later, a year later, only a year, year later, for five times more. And he wrote on that piece of paper wow, yeah. And I said, wow, man, you know everybody's doing it wrong. Yep, everybody's doing it wrong. So, uh, that's what kind of got me thinking about you know what? I need to help other people with this.

Speaker 3: 3:22

So in 07, I did sell that business, actually for five times more, and I spent the next couple of years flipping houses. I've been a real estate broker for 30 plus years and I built a business of flipping houses and getting them from the banks and stuff like that. And then times change as they do, right, seven years later I'm saying, okay, I'm done flipping, the market's changed, everything's expensive. Now it doesn't make any sense. I said, well, what do I want to do when I grow up? Well, I think I want to help other people get to the point where I got to with my IT business, help them cash out, help them build business, help show them what's important and what builds value into the business.

Speaker 2: 4:01

So, a they can make more money now and B- they have an asset they can sell down the road, absolutely. I mean, how many people get into business? Number one maybe don't understand the business side of things. Maybe they know the product, the service real well, but they don't understand the business side.

Speaker 3: 4:17

But then never have a plan to, you know, retire and that's what the whole E-Myth book was built around, and I'm actually an Amazon bestselling author and I'd actually written something very similar to that prior to e-myth. And that's the problem. We come to our businesses as administrators or technicians oh well, I can do that better than the schmuck I'm working for.

Speaker 3: 4:39

Well yeah, you probably could do that skill set better. But what about the marketing? What about the books? What about managing people? What about everything else that goes with managing a business? You don't know how to do any of that. I know I did and I had to learn. Absolutely that's a painful learning curve.

Speaker 2: 4:58

I bet 100%, and I'm glad you don't want other people to go through that too, if they can avoid that. So, speaking of that, we've all had some type of challenge or obstacle maybe along our journey that you know we can look back at now and say you know what? I'm in a better place now because I went through that. Is there something that happened along your journey that you can look back at now?

Speaker 3: 5:20

Well, you know, I'm continually learning. Every year I get more certifications, every year I sharpen my ax, I'm continually learning, but the one thing you know, I think the takeaway was you know you can control a lot of different things, mainly your reaction to things, okay. So, like I tell my clients, I say, hey, look, don't react. Respond Right, because the wild card in any business is the employees. I don't care what anybody says, yep, it's the employees. And if you can't manage your people, starting with managing yourself, you've got a tough road to hoe, and you know. That's why, in my business model I mean, I take a holistic approach to business consulting. Yes, three of the four pillars of my business have to do with the technical aspects of running that business, whether it be messaging, accounting or processes. But the fourth deals with mindset. The fourth deals with okay, you're not in the right place. Maybe you have a negative belief system around money that's keeping you from doing what you need to do. I have a system that addresses that as well.

Speaker 2: 6:27

I love that you look at it as a whole. You know, yeah, A living, breathing entity, Absolutely. Are there? Are there any maybe myths or maybe misconceptions surrounding what you do that maybe we could clear up for our listeners?

Speaker 3: 6:40

Well, you know I hate the term coach. When you think of coach, right, you're thinking of a cheerleading squad, and I know a lot of coaches locally in the area. They're kind of one trick ponies. They either know their accounting or they know they think they know their marketing or they think they know processes. You know, I've found I have to take a holistic approach to it, so I don't care for the term coach. Consultant sounds a little bit like all right, that's the guy we blame when things go sideways. Well, I don't like that term either. I like to think of myself as a business advisor. You know, with three decades and multiple business sales under my belt, as well as certifications, I like to be the advisor. I like to help them just grow the business, scale the business as far as possible and at some point have something, a legacy or something to cash out.

Speaker 2: 7:31

Absolutely, because every situation is a little bit different.

Speaker 3: 7:34

It is so you need to approach it that way approach it that way and sometimes I have to sit down with you know if there's a husband and wife scenario. You know I mean a divorce rate for married people in business is quite high, it's like 80%.

Speaker 3: 7:48

So I have to get two sides you know, working with one owner now I got to figure out what's pissing her off, yeah, as well as what's happening going on in the business. And sometimes you know and we all go through this, we're all kids, we're all you know we either have this abundance mentality or scarcity mentality. I have to understand what's going on inside their heads because if they've got a scarcity mentality and they're freaked out, they don't want to spend money, or they've got some belief system in their head which started way early. I've got to learn to work around that or change that.

Speaker 2: 8:20

Absolutely so. Do you see anything I would say trending within the industry that you're doing currently Within my industry?

Speaker 3: 8:28

Yeah, yeah, you know it's. There's nothing new under the sun, right, right, yep, the only difference I can see is I'm hoping there are more people, more coaches or consultants or advisors out there who are taking a more holistic approach, because, like I, like I said, I know a few of the coaches in this area and I I get them a lot of times after you know the, the customers I'm getting after they work with some of these coaches and they're like you know what. That person didn't do anything for me. Yep, I'm not any better now than I was before, but I'm 5, 10 or 15 grand lighter.

Speaker 1: 9:07

well, okay, that's a problem.

Speaker 3: 9:09

We have to figure out why that. Why, you know, was it you or wasn't that? And unfortunately, you know the trend is. In my opinion, it should be that you need more guys who come from a holistic approach like me. Right, and it's not like I don't look at marketing as marketing. I look at the messaging. Marketing is where you put that message. Nobody's getting the message right when it comes to coaching these people. They're just saying, oh well, you know, linkedin google, but okay, well, that's great if you want to spend a lot of money and get no results. But I actually work on the message and I don't find very many coaches who are doing that. That's a big difference right now.

Speaker 1: 9:51

Yeah, they all push.

Speaker 2: 9:52

You know what everybody else is pushing out there, and you're no different than anybody else, Right? So, taking a little side note, were you from Southwest Florida originally?

Speaker 3: 10:03

It depends what you consider. Originally I've been here since 1978, which is a long, long time, I went to high school down here. I graduated from barrett collier, uh, and probably the first couple years it was open. I had such a stellar career in high school that, um, I had to join the army and I served in the combat unit for three years, which was a whole nother education college down here twice, um, but I've been here since 78, so I've seen a lot of change.

Speaker 2: 10:34

A lot of change way different now I bet. I bet so outside of work. I know you're a busy guy, but outside of work, what do you love doing?

Speaker 3: 10:43

I love fishing. I like to fish. I have a center console, 20 foot center console. I go out, I catch dinner, next week's dinner, whatever. I love the fish. I also have kind of a little bit of a farm. Um, I have horses, I have turkeys that I raise, uh and sell, and uh, that keeps my mind. You know, like the samurai used to have this saying you know anything you didn't understand or didn't know left you vulnerable for attack. And I subscribe to that theory. That's why they would do the tea ceremonies and people like this guy's with swords beating up on each other, what do they have to know? A tea ceremony for Right. But the point is you got to have sometimes you have to change gears in your brain. You have to kind of look at other things. Stop, appreciate the flower, appreciate, you know, your dog, your wife, whatever, if you like fishing. It just changes the neurology of your head and you can come back on a Monday morning and look at things completely different.

Speaker 2: 11:39

Yeah, connecting with nature. And what?

Speaker 1: 11:42

we have around us.

Speaker 2: 11:42

That's that's important. So is there one thing you wish our listeners knew about what you do that maybe they're not aware of?

Speaker 3: 11:52

Something they're not aware of. Well, I wouldn't say necessarily something I'm they're not aware of about me. I would probably say if you're going to be in business, think about it in the long term. Ok, don't have a one year strategy or necessarily a two year strategy. Yes, you need to make your money now. You need to increase your profits.

Speaker 3: 12:16

You have to know the difference between profit and revenue and how to how to obtain profit. I teach workshops on this. But you know, if you're going to spend all the time and effort and we know business owners will take holidays, off their birthdays, they get divorced because their wives are like you're never home. Right, if you're going to put all that energy into something, at least turn it into something that somewhere down the road, you can say you know what I'm done. Here the keys everything works fine without me being there. All right, that's a business. That's important. You have to be All right. That's a business. That's important. You have to be there every day. It's a job. Here are the keys. Give me my lump sum or pay me out over five years or whatever, and get on with your life.

Speaker 2: 12:58

Treat it like an asset, don't treat it like a job. I love that. I love that. So how would our listeners go about getting a hold of you if they own a business and they have questions or they know somebody that does?

Speaker 3: 13:09

That's pretty easy. I mean, you can Google me all day long or you can go to MaxBusinessProfits. com. I have a website there. My direct line is 239-580-7408. And, of course, sergio at Max Business Profits. But I'm pretty much on social media. Quite a bit I'm on Google. You can Google my name, you'll find me. But yeah, I mean and I love to help people. So if somebody has just a question or two that they want to ask in pertaining to their business, I'd be more than happy to help them out.

Speaker 2: 13:41

Absolutely Any last words for our listeners.

Speaker 3: 13:48

You know the economy is changing. Things are changing, Right, we go through cycles, the world goes through cycles. There are seasons for everything, you know. Let not your heart be troubled, but you do have to adjust to what's coming. If you need some help with that, come talk to me.

Speaker 2: 14:05

Absolutely, Sergio. Thank you for being such a good neighbor and I hope to see you out in the community here soon.

Speaker 1: 14:11

Same same here thank you for listening to the good neighbor podcast estero. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnp estero. com. That's gnp estero. com, or call 239-296-2621.